Category Archives: Uncategorized

The news that Lotus Renault GP’s use of a black and gold livery has caught the attention of anti-tobacco groups has not come as a big surprise.

There is no evidence that the team is doing anything underhand, or is benefiting commercially by subliminally promoting cigarettes. However, the decision to go black and gold could well prove to be a little misguided.

I am indebted to my fellow blogger Joe Saward, who today posted photographic evidence from Austria that JPS is now using point of sale advertising material with a motor racing theme. It features a cigarette packet with wheels, on a grid, and the phrase ‘The Legend.’ A happy co-incidence? Blatant opportunism by Imperial Tobacco? Or something else?

When Tony Fernandes first announced that Lotus Racing was returning to F1 I am sure that most non-smokers – like myself – naively assumed that the JPS brand was either dead and buried, or only available in a few far flung markets.

After Lotus Renault GP revealed that it was going to run in black and gold Fernandes was surprisingly quick to capitulate and announce that his team would stay in green and yellow. He claimed that he hadn’t realised that JPS was still on sale, and anticipated trouble.

“With many people complaining that I may be promoting a cigarette brand that’s still in existence, I think we may be wise to go back to green,” he told me in December. “We’re not silly and emotional and childish about it. We always wanted to be the green team. We thought for a change we’d give black and gold a run, whether it’s co-incidence or they copied, they came out with the same concept.”

Meanwhile Lotus Renault GP pushed ahead with its plans.

A little research reveals that the JPS brand is far from moribund or a relic of the 70s and 80s. In fact it is hugely important to Imperial Tobacco, whose portfolio of brands includes recent former F1 sponsors West and Gauloises Blondes.

Indeed corporate presentations from late last year detail that since 2006 sales of JPS have risen by 58%, or 116% in Germany alone. JPS has become Imperial’s biggest brand in Germany, with a 9.3% market share.

As a demonstration of how important the JPS brand is to Imperial in Europe and Australasia, here are some examples of marketing developments in Germany that the company quotes:

Players Edition: September 2009

Soft Pack: November 2009

Ice: July 2010

Design Yellow and Black: July 2010

The timing of that latter development is intriguing, to say the least. In addition, Imperial trumpets the following JPS data:

Global volumes continue to grow more than 10% p.a.

Germany: 9.9% spot share in August

UK: 5.9% spot share in July

– JPS Silver at 5.2%

– biggest King Size smooth brand in the economy sector

Australia: share up to 2.6% in August; growing rapidly

New Zealand: rapid progress

Summing up, chief executive Alison Cooper (no relation!) said: “JPS has delivered another outstanding performance this year with the UK, Germany, Australia, Portugal and New Zealand all contributing. Since 2006, the brand’s cigarette volumes have grown at a compound rate of 12 per cent whilst in Germany, where 44 per cent of the brand’s volumes are sold, compound annual growth of 21 per cent has been achieved since 2006, it’s a great success story of a quality brand at an affordable price.”

And Mike Ashton, head of performance planning, said: “There’s more to come from JPS and we’re very confident that the brand can maintain its growth rate. JPS has heritage and yet it maintains a clear, uncluttered style which is very much appreciated by value consumers.”

The bottom line is that Imperial is giving JPS a massive push, and thus Lotus Renault GP’s decision to revive perhaps the most iconic livery in motor sport history must have come as a welcome bonus.

It would be naive to suggest that public won’t in some way connect the current car with F1 glories of the past, even without JPS logos appearing. After all Philip Morris continues to pump millions into Ferrari on the basis that it is still perceived as a Marlboro car.

As I said there is no evidence that the Lotus Renault GP livery has any sinister connotations – although another co-incidence is that Imperial has a major presence in Poland and Russia, home countries of the drivers.

But given that Imperial is now using motor racing in its promotion materials, the team may be well advised to review the situation.

The irony is that Dany Bahar has criticised Tony Fernandes for promoting Lotus, a brand with which he has no formal connection – and Lotus Renault GP is in danger of doing something similar…

Tony Fernandes has reiterated that he’s not giving up in the fight to retain the use of the Lotus name in 2011.

The argument between Team Lotus and Group Lotus will reach the UK courts next week.

Speaking on Twitter today, Fernandes likened the situation to Ron Dennis taking over McLaren.

In a series of Tweets Fernandes wrote: “Let’s get a few things straight. U set up a separate company from car company to protect car company from racing up and downs. Company goes into liquidation. Bought by david hunt. 16 years no racing. Team bought from david hunt by nasa din and tony. We are no different from ron dennis at mcclaren. End of story.

“Ron dennis didn’t start mccalren bruce mcclaren did. Proton and dany bahr didn’t start group lotus. Colin Chapman did. What’s the difference. Proton own group lotus and din me and nasa own team lotus.

“And lotus renault is a renault end of story. Mcclaren is maclaren is not vodafone and mercedes is mercedes not petronas mercedes or a petronas car. End of story.

“And can someone tell me who owns renault and genii. So many different names.

“Not much said about david hunt. All I can say he is the most honorable man in all of this. Moody at times but his love for lotus brand is immense.

“More to come on my feeling and the truth on this lotus saga. The good always win…”

If you haven’t already found it Tony’s entertaining Twitter account is @tonyfernandes…

Pirelli has completed a successful wet weather test in Abu Dhabi, with Pedro de la Rosa driving the Toyota TF109 under floodlights and becoming the first man to drive an F1 car in the wet at night.

The Spaniard used the 3.1kms ‘North Loop’ configuration of the track, which was soaked with 140,000 litres of water. He ran on two evenings from 6pm to midnight, the lack of sun ensuring that the track stayed wet for longer. The first day was focussed on full wets, and the second on intermediates.

On the previous two days he ran some 1400kms on all four types of dry tyres.

De la Rosa said: “In my opinion, Pirelli is ready now for Formula One. The dry tyre test went very well, and confirmed everything we had learned in Bahrain the week before. But the most original part of the test was when we were running at night on the wet tyres, which was as new an experience for me as it was for everyone else.

“The most important thing was that the water levels were consistent, which allowed us to have some accurate results from the test. At the end of it, we’ve come up with two tyres – wet and intermediate – which I believe are both competitive and stable.”

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery said: “It’s been an extremely positive test session here in Abu Dhabi, thanks to the fantastic facilities we’ve had available to us and the usual hard work from Pedro and the rest of our team. We’re very proud to have been part of creating a little bit of history by running a Formula One car at night for the first time on wet tyres –  we very much believe that Pirelli will be able to contribute to the spectacle of Formula One in the future, and seeing the car kicking up huge plumes of spray under the floodlights has certainly been an amazing sight that we will all remember for a long time.

“While we are well aware that we are new to Formula One and still have plenty to learn, I’m confident that we can approach the start of this year’s official testing next month with a strong package.”

Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo says that the team has to make a good start to the 2011 season, having in effect lost last year’s title by failing to score well enough early on.

He also said that he’s still bugged by the Abu Dhabi strategy disaster.

“Believe me, I often still wake up at night thinking of the race in Abu Dhabi, so it goes without saying that we must absolutely look to the future,” he said at Ferrari’s PR event in Italy. “We are working very hard on the new car. As Domenicali and I told you back in December, there has been no revolution within our organisation, just a few adjustments aimed at improving the way the team is run.

“We must make a good start, both in terms of reliability and, above all, on the performance front. Last year, we lost the championship in a first half that found us failing to live up to our expectations. I think this will be a very interesting championship. There are a few question marks regarding the new rules, and therefore we will have to wait and see how competitive are our rivals.”

He also had some thoughts on who might be Ferrari’s main rivals this year, after Fernando Alonso tipped Michael Schumacher,

“I think we must wait for the first few races, but these tales are good for the media and the fans. Alonso says Michael, Felipe says Hamilton, maybe Michael will favour Vettel, so there’s nothing new under the sun! But, Michael is still close to my heart and part of Ferrari’s history and I have no doubt he is still a fantastic driver.”

Reminded about Nico Rosberg, he added: “So, sure, there’s also Rosberg. In fact, I expect three teams, maybe even four to be fighting it out at the top in 2011. Of the new generation of drivers, he is in there as indeed is Vettel. But the hierarchy will be established on the stopwatch. Having said that, one problem we don’t have is on the driver front: I know who is the best in the world, but I’m not saying…”

Felipe Massa says he can bounce back after his difficult 201o season, when he found himself playing second fiddle to new team mate Fernando Alonso.

Massa finished a frustrated sixth in last year’s championship, his season overshadowed by the Hockenheim team orders controversy. However the 2008 title contender is confident that he can be strong again this year.

“My target for this season is simple – to win races and to fight for the title,” said Felipe at Ferrari’s annual PR event in Italy. “I know that things didn’t go well last year but that is the past. I believe I can return to fight for the crown and I have nothing else in my mind.”

Massa struggled in 2010 to get the most out of the harder Bridgestone tyres.

“I was never comfortable with the tyres, in particular the front ones. I didn’t manage to adapt my driving style to those tyres, which were very different to the ones from 2009. That took its toll, especially in qualifying and when the available compounds were the hardest ones. There were never problems with motivation, not even after a difficult weekend like Hockenheim.

“Fernando was better than me but I know my potential and I know that the team believes in me. In the past I’ve always had very strong team mates, like Michael and Kimi, but I’d never found myself in a situation of not being comfortable with the car, as I had in 2010.”

Massa says he likes the latest rules package: “I think that these changes are going in the right direction. We will certainly have more buttons on the steering wheel and we will have to pay a lot of attention – for example with the buttons to activate KERS, which you don’t use all in one go but at different parts of the circuit according to the track and the moment. As for the rear wing, we won’t be able to make a judgement until the first races.”

Fernando Alonso expects another close fight in 2011, and says that Michael Schumacher and Mercedes will be tougher competition than last year.

Alonso is still seeking his third World Championship, having missed out at the final round last year. Logic suggests that he could start this season even stronger than last, having found his feet at Ferrari.

“It would be nice to repeat 2010 – to be able to fight for the championship until the end,” said Fernando at Ferrari’s media gathering in Italy. “I think that it will be possible but we will begin to find out in the winter tests. We are totally focused on preparing in the best way to win both the titles.”

Regarding his likely competition, Alonso said: “It would be great if my rival was Felipe – that would mean we have the best car. I expect that there are at least four teams who will be battling, ourselves, Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes.

“There will be five world champions on the track – and if I had to choose the most dangerous rival I would say Schumacher. He’s a driver who has won the most, he has nothing to prove and he certainly has every capacity to be the strongest.”

Alonso made the intriguing point that this year he’s had more input into the design of the car, which may therefore be even more suited to him than its predecessor.

“When I arrived at the team in 2010 the car was already prepared whereas this year, thanks to the reciprocal relationship between me and the engineers, we’ve been able to try to introduce everything that can be influenced by the driver.

“That includes the cockpit, the controls, the behaviour of the car based on driving style – that will be much more adapted to me compared with last year.”

Alonso also made some interesting comments on last season, and specifically the team’s disastrous strategy call in Abu Dhabi.

“In the second part of the year we made an extraordinary recovery then, at the last race, we didn’t manage to win the title. Certainly after the race you can say that decision was wrong and we should have acted differently. But at the moment that we chose to come into the pits it seemed the right move to us. Now we can stand here and say the degradation of the soft tyres evolved in a surprising manner and that we could have stayed on the track until lap 30 but it’s easy to say that now.

“The truth is that, as I’ve always said, even if they seem predictable words, you win and you lose together. If it’s true that you learn more from defeats than victories it’s also true that for me 2010 was a success. It’s no longer worth thinking about Abu Dhabi: one minute more given to this means a minute less to dedicate to this year’s work.

“At the end of every season you do an assessment: we know that there are areas where we must improve while seeking to keep up our strengths. We lost so many points in the first part of the year and we know that we will have to be perfect from March to November to win. We’ve made some changes inside the team that I’m sure will help improve things – as you have to do in every field, not just sport. I know [new race engineering boss] Pat Fry very well, having worked with him at McLaren, and I think that he can be a big help to us.”

The HRT team has now officially confirmed that Narain Karthikeyan will drive this year, after the Indian driver told his local media yesterday.

Karthikeyan, who turns 34 on January 17, last raced in F1 with the Jordan/Midland in 2005, and later spent some time as a Williams test driver, although he didn’t do much mileage.

Kolles said in a statement: “It is a great pleasure for us to have signed Narain Karthikeyan as our race driver for the 2011 Formula 1 World Championship. I have known Narain for a long time and he can revert to the experiences he gained when he was competing for Jordan Grand Prix and being test and reserve driver for Williams F1.

“Narain has also been driving in other racing series and running in one of the legendary Audi sports cars in the Le Mans Series. I am sure that his experience and speed will be very useful for the team during the season. We are welcoming Narain to our team and we look forward to working closely with him this year.”

Karthikeyan added: “It’s been a while in the making, but I am extremely happy to be racing again in Formula 1 in 2011. I have always maintained that I have not given up on my desire to return to the pinnacle of world motorsport. I am confident that I still have the pace, the fitness and the will to succeed in Formula 1.

“I’m looking forward to racing for Hispania Racing, and to working again with Dr. Colin Kolles. We have a long standing and excellent working relationship together. I’m also looking forward to racing at the first ever Indian Grand Prix in October, and I hope that the Indian public will spur me on with their blessings and good wishes.”

Narain Karthikeyan is set to return to F1 with HRT this season, ensuring that there will be a local presence on the grid for the first Indian GP in October.

Karthikeyan announced the news on Twitter by saying: “Back in F1 in 2011. Signed a deal to race for HRT. I’ve always maintained that my time in F1 was not over & now making good on that promise.”

Karthikeyan’s arrival at HRT is logical given his long relationship with team boss Colin Kolles, who haS a history of maintaining contacts with drivers he’s employed over the years. In 2005 Karthikeyan drove for Kolles at the Jordan team in its first season under Midland ownership, finishing fourth in the US GP after the Michelin runners pulled out. He has since driven for Kolles at Le Mans.

He kept his hand in after the Jordan season with a spell as Williams test driver. Last year he competed in the NASCAR truck series but also got some single seater mileage in Superleague.

Karthikeyan – who turns 34 in two weeks – has the support of the mighty Tata Group, which is also involved with Ferrari.

The Times of India quoted him as saying: “It’s been a while in the making, but I am delighted to be racing again in Formula 1 in 2011. I have always maintained that I have not given up on my desire to return to the top level of motor sport. I am confident that I have the pace, the fitness and the will to succeed in Formula 1. I am extremely grateful to the Tata Group, without whose unwavering support, this comeback would not have been possible.”

Chris Dyer has lost his role as head of race engineering at Scuderia Ferrari, in the wake of the team’s Abu Dhabi strategy disaster.

The Aussie’s job will now be an extra responsibility for deputy technical director Pat Fry, who joined from McLaren last year.

The Ferrari website says that Dyer’s “role within the company will be redefined in the next few days.” History suggests that he will be given a non-travelling factory job, something that may actually suit him as he has a young family.

Meanwhile former McLaren and Red Bull man Neil Martin has joined the team as head of a new Operations Research department. The 38-year-old Brit will report to technical director Aldo Costa.

Work finally commenced at the Austin site on December 30

Promoter Tavo Hellmund was on hand to keep an eye on progress

A picture of earth moving equipment would not normally be of much interest to motor racing fans, but these exclusive shots prove that work is finally underway at the site of the US GP in Austin.

Promoter Tavo Hellmund told everyone some months ago that work would have to begin in December in order to be ready for the first race, expected to be scheduled for June 2012.

And indeed the Austin team has met that schedule, albeit only just, as groundbreaking commenced yesterday. There’s still a long way to go, but at least the weather should be more favourable than it is elsewhere in the USA…